CHAPTER XXIII
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CHAPTER XXIII.
River Waipa--Mission-Station of Otawao
In the evening we arrived at the banks of the Waipa, and were welcomed in the house of an Englishman, a trader and old settler. The river was swollen by the late rains, and had risen about eight feet above its usual level. The banks being elevated, this made no difference in its breadth, which was here about fifty yards. Its average depth was now from one and a half to two fathoms; but even in dry seasons a boat can go up ten or twelve miles higher than this place. The valley itself has little slope, and the average velocity of the river cannot be sufficient to hinder boats from going against the stream: its velocity per second I found to be nearly two feet and a half. The banks consisted of a stiff loamy earth, with layers of sand, but without any fragments of rocks. All the surrounding country is flat, and of the most promising description for the growth of grain. Our English host had a quantity of tobacco hung up to dry, which he had grown here: it was of an excellent quality, and the rich soil and humid climate seem to be well adapted for the cultivation of this plant.
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MISSION STATION OF OTAWAO.
On the 24th we crossed the Waipa in a canoe, and reached the Church missionary station of Otawao, which is about nine miles distant from our resting-place of the night before. Here, for the first time, we had a view of the snowy head of the Ruapahu, which is about 150 miles distant.
The mission-station of Otawao was established about a year ago, and has already been very useful. It is situated on the banks of a small tributary of the Waipa: opposite to it, on an eminence, the Christian natives have constructed their pa, as at the first introduction of Christianity a sort of separation always takes place between the Christian converts and the Heathens, without, however, materially affecting the general harmony of the tribe. In those cases in which the majority of the tribe or of the inhabitants of a village have become converts to Christianity, the remainder, finding themselves deserted, and unable to assemble followers for warlike enterprises, frequently affect to adopt the new doctrine. At this place, Muketu, the pa of Te Puata, the principal chief and warrior, which stood at a little distance on rising ground, was almost uninhabited, although the native houses in it were by far the best I had yet seen in New Zealand, and the carvings on them were executed with much ingenuity. Te Puata is an old man, and was formerly the principal chief of the whole Waikato tribe; his authority is now transferred to his son, Te-Wero-Wero, who resides in Manukao. But the veteran
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MAUNGA-TAUTARI.
is still bent upon war, and told me that he would fight till he was dead. He bears great hatred to the tribe of Roturua, with which he has quarrels of an old date to settle.
In this neighbourhood there are several well-peopled pas, amongst which was that of our companion and guide Te Waro. We visited three of them, and in all I found many highly interesting carvings on the houses and fences. In one a papa tupapakau, or carved mausoleum, erected for Te-Wero-Wero's daughter, was an extraordinary piece of native workmanship.
Not far distant from Te-Wero's pa rises a hilly range, Maunga-Tautari, separating the valley of the Waipa from another valley more to the eastward, in which three rivers flow, the Waikato, the Piako, and the Waiho, or the river Thames. The Waikato winds around the northern slope of this range, and is joined, about 100 miles above its embouchure, by the Waipa. The valley of the Waipa, which is therefore formed by Maunga-Tautari and a range of hills near the western coast, must be regarded as partly original volcanic table-land, and partly alluvial soil; the surface of the latter is enriched by the forest which in ancient times covered it. The groves, which are still standing in many places, especially where swamps are found in the depressions of the land, consist mostly of kahikatea: this pine, the swamp-pine (Dacrydium excelsum), generally occupies low and
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THE KAHIKATEA-PINE.
swampy ground. It grows rapidly, and attains a large size, but its wood is less durable than that of any other pine. Nevertheless, many small coasting-vessels have been built of it; and it is well adapted for the inside wood-work of houses: but if exposed to the outer air and to the humidity of the climate, it requires a good paint to preserve it from rotting. The kahikatea bears very numerous seeds in bunches: the fruit is double; the upper part, which is the seed, is blue, and of an aromatic taste; the lower part is a sort of fleshy receptacle, not however a mere hollow cup-shaped cover, but entirely distinct from the seed: it is of a crimson colour, and is slightly acidulous: both parts are of the size of pepper-corns. According to the natives, these berries, which they call koroi, ripen only every third year. They are eaten with avidity by the birds, and are considered a great delicacy by the natives, who also press out the juice and drink it unfermented.
About ten Europeans are settled in the neighbourhood of Otawao; and in numerous dispersed and fortified villages live several distinct tribes, all belonging to the Waikato nation. On Sunday I witnessed the assemblage and catechizing of the Christian natives who live opposite the mission-station. An old blind native, Haramona, or Solomon, as he has been christened, acted as catechist to the men, feeling his way from one to the other with his staff, and evincing excellent powers of
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NATIVE CATECHISTS.
memory; his class sat around him in a circle. The females were interrogated by a very intelligent-looking young woman; and I was much surprised and gratified to see what progress they had made in so short a time. Nearly all of them were proficients in reading and writing, which they had been taught by mutual instruction. The chiefs, a few only of whom had become converts, sat at some distance, and contemplated the whole in silence. Slaves and the lower classes are always the first among the New Zealanders to embrace Christianity, the doctrines of which are so effectual in consoling the oppressed and the unhappy.
We started from Otawao in the afternoon of the 28th, having obtained the guidance and safeguard of a chief named Titipa, who, with his whole family and about eighteen of his followers, was proceeding to pay a visit to their friends and relations at Taupo. We halted at a plantation belonging to our guide, near a kahikatea-forest, where a pig was killed for our entertainment, and where, on account of heavy rains, we were obliged to stay the following day. The time passed, however, quickly, as I obtained from the natives much information about themselves and their tribe. The country around was too monotonous to offer much inducement to explore it, even had the weather rendered my doing so possible.
On the 30th our direction was easterly, leaving the river Waipa, the source of which lay towards
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PAS OF THE NATIVES.
the west, among the mountains of Rangitoto. This range of hills forms a continuation of the western coast-hills, and connects them with the group of the Ruapahu. On the western slope of these mountains is the source of the Mokau river, which falls into the sea about sixty miles to the northward of Cape Egmont. The general level of the valley of the Waipa is interrupted by a few isolated pyramidical hills of a volcanic origin, of which arms, consisting of tufa and pumicestone, run off in all directions, often presenting cliffy escarpments on the sides. We passed two old pas of the Nga-te-raukaua, a tribe which has now deserted the interior in consequence of their wars with the Waikato. They live at Otaki, in Cook's Straits, in constant hostility with the other tribes there, especially the Nga-te-awa. One of these pas was very picturesquely situated: a streamlet wound its way around the cliffy pumiceous sides of a hill, which was covered with verdure, and on which the old fortifications could still be traced; farther up we passed a conical hill, the base of which consisted of a hard basaltic rock overlaid by pumice, and the whole covered with fern. Approaching the base of the wooded range of Maunga-Tautari, which was to our left, we came to a small native settlement, the inhabitants of which were mostly dependants of our guide Titipa, who claims the whole of this district by right of conquest. On our road this day Titipa pointed out a human figure rudely
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BROKEN COUNTRY.
carved in pumicestone, a monument to the memory of the principal chief of the Nga-te-raukaua, who fell here in a fight, in which Titipa was the principal actor. The range of Maunga-Tautari slopes here to the southward, terminating in a pyramidical summit, which we in vain tried to ascend, the path which formerly led up it having become entirely grown over with brushwood. The land to the southward of this range is generally pumice-land, and is covered with a light black or reddish earth, in many places very favourable to vegetable life.
From this point our road lay through a singularly broken country. Moderately elevated hillocks presented here and there cliffs consisting of tufa or of lapilli of pumicestone loosely cemented together by volcanic ashes. The cliffs were often lined with a shrub (Metrosideros hypericifolia), with small myrtle-like leaves, which fixed its tendrils firmly to the rock, in the same manner as our ivy does. In some places the surface of the country formed regular basins, and craggy castle-like formations of the rock crowned the hills. In the indentations and ravines appeared some shrubs and trees; but the scanty vegetation of fern and coarse wiry grass, with here and there a solitary dragon-tree, gave the region a dreary aspect. On the whole, the pumicestone has not undergone sufficient decay to allow the growth of anything except scanty grass. Most of the valley had a north to south direction; and there is no want of water, as in every valley
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TEMPERATURE.
flows a little streamlet. We pitched our tent in one of these valleys; and the natives talked of establishing a plantation here, in order to be provided with food on their road to Taupo. In the evening we were joined by some inhabitants of Taupo, who were returning from a visit to Otawao.
The temperature of the air showed the difference between the climate of the coast and the interior. Although rising at noon to about 70 deg., it fell in the evening to 45 deg., and in the morning we found ice about half an inch thick covering the ponds and swamps, and a hoar-frost whitened the plains. To the northward a thick mist indicated the bed of the Waikato, and again, at a farther distance, that of the river Thames. The wind during these days was from the south-east; towards evening it subsided into a perfect calm, and the landscape assumed that clear autumnal aspect which is so pleasing in Europe.
On the 4th of May we proceeded over a low undulating fern country, and entered a wood, in which the principal trees were matai and totara. The former (Dacrydium matai) bears a dark-blue berry, of the size and shape of that of the whitethorn, the pulpy shell of which has a sweet and aromatic taste. The tree is a pine of moderate dimensions, about seventy feet high at the point where the branches begin; the wood is durable, though light; it is red, and looks well in furniture. The totara (Podocarpus totara) is the most durable of the New
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VARIETIES OF PINE.
Zealand pines. The tree attains great thickness, and is invaluable for ship-building.
Of the different pines in New Zealand, the rimu, the kahikatea, the totara, and two species of tanekaha, bear a double berry, that is to say, the seed is separated from the pulpous and fleshy receptacle, which in the two latter approaches to the shape of a cup, and surrounds a part of the seed; in the two former, however, the pulpous part is divided from the seed, which rests upon it. The miro and matai bear a drupe, which is crimson-coloured in the former, with a blue dust, and in the latter dark-blue, or nearly black. 1 have not seen the fructification of the kawaka, or Dacrydium plumosum, nor that of the new pine which I discovered on Mount Egmont. The kauri is the only pine bearing a cone.
The forest was interwoven with creepers, and the road very tedious. We encamped about a mile from the left shore of the river Waikato. On ascending the hill which separated us from it, a novel scene opened before me. Looking to the eastward the land appeared as if the waves of the sea had suddenly become petrified: on the declivities of the low undulations the white and naked clay appeared; in other parts the hillocks were covered with a stunted fern and a coarse discoloured grass; and the brown tint which these imparted to the whole gave it a barren and desolate aspect. The river was not visible from the hill; and in order to see it I
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GEOLOGICAL CHARACTER
was obliged to descend into the deep channel which it had dug out of the soft tufaceous and leucitic lava. The banks which form its channel during freshes are about 150 yards distant from each other, but now the river was confined between banks of six feet high, and within much narrower limits, not being more than fifty yards broad. Its course was from S. by E. to N. by W. In some parts it was deep, and at others it formed rapids; the water was bluish and clear, and marked the near neighbourhood of the snows and glaciers of the Ruapahu, in which it takes its rise.
We had a distant view of Horo Horo, a mountain in which the river Thames has its source; it bore S. 80 deg. E. We also saw Titiraupena, a pyramidical mountain, with naked black rocks heaped upon its pointed summit, and bearing S. 20 deg. E.
On the 5th and 6th we passed through a country in the highest degree curious to the geologist. It was broken into a number of hillocks, most irregularly dispersed over the perfectly level surface of the original table-land. On the hillocks themselves most regular terraces were visible in some places, and it was plain that they could have only been produced by a gradual fall of the waters. All these hillocks consisted of tufa, or the before-mentioned lapilli of pumicestone, cemented together. Everywhere flowed little streamlets, and we passed two deep creeks, the Maunga Wio and the Waipapa, tributaries of the river Waikato. The Wai-
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OF THE DISTRICT.
papa presented a very wild scene. The river, here about forty yards broad, lost itself in successive falls in a deep fissure which it had corroded out of the soft rock. The country now became more desert; as the level land, consisting of the same materials as the hills, was as yet but little decomposed, and nourished only a stunted vegetation of grass and fern, and a plant of the family of the Compositae.
Near the river-courses the soil was better, and bore a good many shrubs. Of animal life nothing was visible, with the exception of the Cigale Zelandica, which filled the air with its chirping note, and a brown ground-lark very common in New Zealand. 1 We passed a number of deep holes in the ground, apparently produced by the water infiltrating into the porous substance, and carrying off a quantity of it by forming a subterraneous rivulet. Here and there I found pieces of obsidian, and everything proved that we were fast approaching a great centre of volcanic action. We passed between two isolated and very remarkable hills: that to our left was called Titiraupena, and its top was shaped like a lofty cupola: that to our right was Wakakahu; it was rugged and broken. We were met here by many natives, who had already heard of our approach. We hailed their arrival with even greater delight than they did ours, as for the last two days we had been living on short rations: this they had foreseen, and accordingly brought us seve-
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SABBATARIAN SCRUPLES.
ral baskets full of food. In the evening we reached their pa, which was called Ahirara. It was situated on the border of a splendid forest of totara, rimu, and matai. The country here became more hilly, the hills belonging to a range which rose into precipitous and fantastic crests, and which may be said to occupy the left shore of the Waikato after that river issues from the lake of Taupo. The pa was surrounded with high and rudely carved fences. It appears that the feeling of security which in the places near the coast has begun to exercise its influence has not yet extended so far inland. The natives have some Christian catechists amongst them, and are occasionally visited by the missionaries from Tauranga and Roturua. Their number amounts to about 400.
Only three miles distant from this place is another pa, the road to it leading through the hilly forest. This pa stood on a pyramidical hill, which was naturally fortified by deep perpendicular chasms. It contained only a few houses, and had lately been established by a chief who was desirous of being at the head of a tribe. Here we stopped on the 8th, and were received with much kindness by the inmates, as they were relations of our guide: however, a slight disagreement arose on the following day, which was Sunday. They refused us food, saying they had become missionaries of late, and had been told it was the greatest sin to kill a pig or to cook on Sunday. That we demanded it on that day was
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THERMAL SPRINGS.
not our fault, as we had solicited it the day before. Titipa started off to a neighbouring Heathen pa, although the rain fell in torrents, and came hack in the afternoon with a pig.
About three miles from this place I saw masses of white vapours rising in jets, and the natives told us that they were caused by the hot-springs (puhia). The way to them leads through a valley, on the sides of which I again observed the curious terraced appearance which I have lately mentioned. The springs, three large and many small ones, were situated at the base of a range of low hills, of a conical shape, and consisting of scoriae. They ranged in a linear direction from north-west to south-east. The larger ones are formed in the shape of a funnel, with a diameter of about twenty-four feet. The water, which was not easily approached, had a milk-white, clayey appearance, and was continually in a state of ebullition, or thrown up in jets: it had a slightly acidulous taste. Steam issued from a number of crevices at the sides of the funnel; the gas was sulphurous, and efflorescences of sulphur and alum lined the rock; there were also some traces of sulphate of iron. The temperature of this milky and muddy mass was above the boiling-point of water, as the mercury rose to 216 deg. Fahr., the highest gradation on the scale of my thermometer. The margin of the funnel was much altered in its chemical composition, and formed a yellowish or reddish clay. The Leptospermum scoparium
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BOILING MUD-PONDS.
clothes the margin of the springs; and although continually exposed to the rising steam, the verdure is little altered.
I started in the morning of the 10th for some other hot-springs which I had descried at a distance. They are about a mile to the southward of those above described, but on the opposite slope of the hills, and are arranged in the same direction of the compass, that is, from north-west to south-east. They are situated in a ravine, bounded on the other side by a range of steep and precipitous cliffs. I was alone; but met three natives, who were going back to Taupo, and who offered to be my guides. The first springs I came to were four in number, and close together. They issued through gravel, and were two feet and a half deep, and about two feet in diameter. The thermometer, when its bulb was brought to the bottom of the spring, rose to the boiling-point. The water was nearly clear, and had an agreeable acidulous taste and a slight smell of hydrosulphurous gas; a thin crust of alum and sulphur was deposited at the brink of the spring. The taste of the water, however, was not quite the same in all the springs. At a little distance were boiling mud-ponds, or stufas; and still farther, steam and sand were thrown up, and constituted a complete volcanic range of miniature hills. The mud and sand had formed regular truncated cones, of which one was about fifteen feet at the base, and ten feet high; inside this cone was a funnel, about two
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BOILING MUD-PONDS.
feet in diameter, and filled with clear hot water, in the centre of which the bubbles rose continually. In one large pond there were eight such cones. In seeing these cones one would almost be inclined to think that those regular craters which are found close together in Waitemata and Waimate have been formed in the same way--namely, as immense stufas, which have been elongated, and have subsided in that direction in which the water overflowed. The external appearance of the small and large craters is perfectly alike, although the latter are on an infinitely larger scale.
The most stupendous of these boiling ponds was about a quarter of a mile farther on. Here a steep cliff, about sixty feet high, white, oxidized, corroded, and undermined, presented itself. At its base was a large pond, continually boiling, with a white foam; throwing out jets of fluid eight to ten feet high, with great violence and noise. The temperature of this pond was likewise above the point of boiling water. The pond, round which was deposited a white clay, was apparently very deep; but I could not sound it, being unable to find amongst the light volcanic materials which covered around it a stone of sufficient weight to attach to my line. I returned to the pa full of the impressive scene I had just beheld. My party had started; but from a neighbouring potato-field I soon procured a guide, and proceeded towards our evening resting-place. The natives here chiefly cultivate the forest-land on
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FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY.
the sides of the hills, which yields them the best crops.
If I wished to describe the country through which we passed, I could not do so better than by saying that it resembled land over which a flood had swept, leaving it torn, or in many places ridged with terraces formed by slow subsidence, but altogether devastated and dreary. Shallow ravines had been formed here and there, often turning at sharp angles where the water had found resistance; the declivities of these ravines were covered with gravel. Sometimes a higher cliff appeared, consisting of a tufaceous conglomerate; the upper soil was pumicestone gravel, and was covered with stunted fern and lichens; here and there was a moor-ground with rushes; there were also swamps and numerous rivulets, near which the vegetation had a fresher aspect. After sunset I arrived at a range of hills covered with wood, and presenting sometimes a cliffy, sometimes a sloping aspect to the eastward. Here was a small pa, the ascent to which was steep and rocky, and which had been chosen by a tribe of the Taupo people as a place of security against the inroads of the Nga-te-Kahohunu from the east coast. It is called Tutaka-moana. In the evening our killing a pig and cooking it on a Sunday was the subject of a lively controversy between our companions and the natives of the pa. Titipa, although not yet a Christian, was well read in his Bible, and proved to them that there was no commandment to refuse a hungry wanderer food on a Sunday.
